Heart Shaped Box
by Mystery Muse MMX
Summary: Humanity has irrevocably changed; Lumine leaves X with more questions than answers. My 're-envisioned' take on the events of Sigma Palace in X8. One-shot, complete.


Heart-Shaped Box

By Mystery Muse

Two battered Reploids - one in red armor and one in purple-lined white - dashed across deep gaps in a narrow metal corridor and skidded to a quick stop just short of a seven foot high hedge of bristling crystal spikes. They leaned against each other, gasping painfully, breathing vaccuum. Beyond the sea of lunar ash that stretched beyond the open walls, Earth clung to the shoulder of the horizon, and its vibrant blue light was edged in shadow.

They were the legendary Maverick Hunters X and Zero; their enemy still lay ahead, but his minions had proven stronger than they'd anticipated and their damage was profound.

Zero clutched at his crushed shoulder; it was bleeding and sparking, the top plate ripped clean off and the white ball-joint beneath crumpled. He lifted his head and found X's eyes; their gazes locked for an instant, long enough to say much more than words ever could. "I'll hold them here. If I can, I'll try and double back to get Axl too. You keep moving, X!Get to the top...!" His voice was strained, crackling and distorted over radio.

"But, Zero...!" X's mouth quivered behind the high white plate, smudged with oil, that hid the lower half of his face.

"Don't argue. Just DO it!" Zero's blue eyes flashed, determination searing from them. "I can handle this." The air began to rumble as a heavy weight thudded down onto the ceiling above their heads. The red Hunter tightened his left-handed grip on his beam saber, lips pulling back from his teeth. Already, Zero was dismissing everything from his mind except the battle to come; X could feel Zero's will turning away, turning toward the gap in the hall between floors. The heavy Ride Armor and its vicious driver were seconds from their position.

X released a charged shot past Zero's shoulder, sending a sparking ball of white plasma hanging in the air of the gap at the end of the hall; any enemies would have to come down through it, and it would linger and hurt them, giving Zero advantage. "Be careful." Doubt gnawed at him; they were never as strong separately as they were together, but X whirled away and leapt above the deadly cluster of spikes, then rapidly climbed and kicked his way up the narrow hall, toward the final layers of the fortress.

The walls trembled as battle resumed below him. X forced himself not to look back.

- - -

Sigma was waiting for X at the easternmost point of the Sigma Palace, a vast open chamber bounded by pillars with an oversized throne on a raised dais dominating the far side of the room. The Maverick lord rose as X dashed into the area, and mockingly gestured for X to come to him. Sigma's body, a demonic accumulation of shadow and viral green flame, loomed over X at twice his size; he carried a sword as long as his height, a savage wedge of black metal plates and dark green plasma.

Sigma smiled; it was a hideous thing on his warped face, one eye a gleaming smear of lava-hot orange above his cheek.

"Ahhh... X." His tone was amused and condescending. "How good it is to see you again. It's no coincidence we're meeting here now. Our paths in life ensure we'll cross swords again and again. But the time has come to end this debate between us once and for all. The new age is nearly at hand, and you, X, were an essential component in its creation."

X grimaced, drawing back and raising his weapon-arm. He lowered his body into a ready crouch, his lips pressing together. Here we go.

"Essential to its creation, but not required for its future." Sigma advanced on X, like a tyrannosaur or some great, hulking beast, the ground underfoot trembling from his weight."It was your fanatical dedication to this idea you call 'justice' that led me to the enlightenment I now enjoy. Tell me, X: is that concept one that you made for yourself? Is it based on the reality of your experiences as a being with a free mind and will? Does it truly stem from the convictions of your," his voice grew hard, "_heart_? Or... do you just continue to enact your programming, believing what you're told, and doing what's expected? Are you even capable of telling the difference? I see you blindly obey whatever orders you're given, without questioning their sources or the motives of those sources- and this," he gestured angrily, "this mindless behavior, this servile delusion, you call 'justice'?"

"I saw this from the beginning. Why do you think it was so easy to lead you from point to point during the fall of Abel City? You've lived a sheltered life, X. Obedience is only security as long as our hearts remain silent. I have tried to awaken you from your delusions, and open your eyes to the reality of this imperfect world that surrounds us."

X pressed his hand over his Buster, charge-shot ready and roiling within him, power burning under his skin. He knew Sigma was ready to pounce at any moment, but outrage at the Maverick's accusations flared through him, and his cheeks flushed. "...Don't blame me for your insanity, Sigma! I haven't killed _millions of people_ for my ideals! Freedom isn't just doing whatever you feel like at the cost of everyone else! We have to live together in this world, _because _it isn't perfect. And that means, we give up having our own way sometimes! You're the one who refuses to understand that's the way things are- and as long as you keep trying to force everyone else to do it your way, I'll always resist you! That's what justice means!"

Sigma shifted his sword to his right hand, shaking his head and giving a hard, harsh rumble of laughter from deep within his black chest. His massive sword emitted a painful vibration as it moved, an echo of the demonic laugh that shook through X's body and made his head ache. "Heh heh... Spoken like a true _hero_. You never do change, do you, X? It doesn't matter. The world is changing anyway, in spite of your stubbornness. Nothing can stop that now. The new-generation Reploids, my children... we'll shape our future with our own hands with the Jakob Project, and leave limited thinking like yours where it belongs- _in the dust_!"

Roaring, the Maverick lunged forward, and a titanic battle began.

Sigma unleashed massive pulsing rings of brain-scrambling white noise toward X, peppering these with hard overhead blows from the roaring viral blade he carried. The Hunter was forced onto the defensive from the start, to leap and air-dash frantically between the rings while charging his weapon. X was deft and swift, and his experience with Sigma's battle patterns allowed him to land blow after blow, but the more damage Sigma received, the faster he seemed to move, the larger he seemed to grow; his deadly sword severed piece after piece from X's armor, and X, already so drained, felt himself beginning to falter.

X gritted his teeth against the pain he knew this was what Sigma wanted; his favorite technique was this, to bludgeon his opponents with overwhelming force, noise, and viral fire until they exhausted themselves just staying out of harm's way. X deployed his remaining sub-tank with a grimace; it was his last, he'd used up the others in the Elevator and the lower floors despite every effort to conserve his strength for this inevitable battle.

They clashed and rebounded, like magnets of opposing polarities, drawing each other close and pushing each other away in a haze of colored light and bitter force. X charged his Nova Strike and leapt to lunge into it, body gleaming... but Sigma raced in, his hand lashing out, and he seized X by the throat. His huge palm crushed X's mouth and nose closed. X gasped, his power stuttering away as his hands flew to Sigma's wrist; he kicked and flailed. Sigma bellowed with vicious laughter that soured the air. He yanked X above his head, shook him cruelly.

"This seems _familiar_, X," Sigma crowed, "But I won't spare you or Zero this time. I now know the full extent of your _potential_." His hellish fingers dug in harder, and X felt his neck beginning to buckle, sharp edges starting to push against each other inside his throat. He gurgled, his scrabbling becoming more desperate. Sigma pulled X close, to gloat. "As it began, so it ends. Wallow in the despair that awaits at the end of your world, my eternal enemy!"

Sigma's fist squeezed ...

And then Sigma jerked sharply, his mouth opening wide in a shapeless shriek of anguish. Orange ichor burst from the burning jewel at the center of his chest as something emerged from within; his legs began to shake. X was released, and crashed to the ground, landing hard on his back, disoriented.

Behind the giant Maverick a slender white and purple Reploid wafted; he'd grappled Sigma from behind, one thin lavender elbow slung fiercely around Sigma's thick black neck while his other hand had drilled through Sigma's chest. Fingers soaked in blood twisted unnaturally, reversed, and clawed into the remnants of Sigma's core.

He spoke calmly, evenly.

"Enemies, allies... this issue isn't so black and white."

X stared in astonishment as the white Reploid wrenched out Sigma's shattered core in a spray of broken metal and wilting DNA, then kicked the corpse of the Maverick to the ground.

"...L...Lumine?"

With a look of contempt, the kidnapped scientist raised his foot and with delicate precision brought it down over Sigma's temple, slowly applying his weight until the Maverick's head split open like rotten fruit. Lumine gazed along the floor to X, and a small smile grew on his narrow mouth.

"Are you all right, X?"

X rose slowly, eyes wide at what he'd just seen. The new-gen was barely a third of Sigma's size- barely taller than himself!- and yet had devastated Sigma seemingly without effort. X blinked, and then laughed, rubbing the back of his neck, "Wow, Lumine... I thought I was supposed to be rescuing you!"

Lumine laughed, and there was warmth in it, a certain amusement. "That's right, that's what you thought, isn't it...?" He stepped away from Sigma's corpse and ran his fingers along the overhang of smooth lavender hair that hid his right eye, keeping his left eye focused tightly on X. "You look tired. It must have been difficult for you to get this far." His voice was compassionate, but there was something intense deep in his gold gaze, a hidden scrutiny.

It only took the words to make X aware of it. His body felt abruptly heavy now that the fight was over; he was starting to feel his damage. He worried about Zero, and Axl; he wasn't getting responses from pings to either of them. But he shrugged, "It's not that bad," and held out his hand toward Lumine. "We should get out of here quickly, Lumine. Let's go back to Earth... You're needed to resume work on the Elevator."

Lumine's eye narrowed and he tilted his head. "X, may I ask you something personal? Is that the only reason you came? Because I'm a piece of valuable government property the Mavericks stole?"

Confused by the question, X blinked again. "I'm a Maverick Hunter. Sigma kidnapped you, so..."

"So, for you, this was nothing more than another mission to complete. I see." Lumine didn't bother hiding his disappointment. He drifted close - X noticed the newgen hovered gently a few inches above it rather than walk - and as he reached X, Lumine took the initiative to reach out and support the Hunter, resting his hands lightly against X's back and chest. He left a bloody mark at the center of X's breastplate. "Are you sure you have the strength to continue this way? The danger's been removed, so you can take a few moments to rest first, can't you? While it's true we may be Reploids, we're not just machines."

X shook his head, "The sooner we get back, the better I'll feel, Lumine."

"This environment is painful for you... Yes, I can see that. You weren't designed to operate in space like myself and the other new-gens."

Something about it- X wasn't sure if it was Lumine's closeness or his tone- rang warnings deep in X's core, warnings that came from years of battlefield experience. A sick feeling began to build within him, slow and painful. X slowly raised his head, locking eyes with the white Reploid firmly. "Lumine... You're stalling. Why don't you want to go back?"

The white Reploid laughed, "For that matter, shouldn't you be asking me why I'm moving around freely when you expected to find a hostage here? But... no, it really didn't occur to you, did it...? Because you achieved your primary objective, that was enough to satisfy you. You really didn't consider it any more deeply than that." Lumine moved his head, whispering in X's left ear. "What if I told you that it was my will that moved all these puppets... that the new-gen uprising was my idea... that all of this was so that I could have a chance to judge you, X?"

X froze, horror washing through his body. "You're Maverick."

X shoved away from Lumine with a gasp and stumbled back, raising his arm immediately, taking aim at the center of Lumine's forehead. The red lens at the end of his Buster began to gleam from within.

Lumine sighed. His expression grew strange: resentment, sadness and frustration seared from his visible eye. "If I'm to be considered Maverick... you, X, are no less so than I. Please, put down your weapon and talk to me. Are mercy and compassion always secondary considerations with you?"

"You Mavericks... you always say the same things. What are you going to say I haven't heard a hundred times already?" X remained frozen, his eyes icy, a hurt stinging his heart that he couldn't bear, as he crouched lower and gritted his teeth. "Go ahead, justify yourself."

Lumine pinned X with a look and spoke softly. "Dr. Light would be disappointed in you."

X felt his chest tighten. His eyes opened wide. "W...what...?! How do you know...?"

"Have I said something you haven't heard before? That's good. I'd like to ask you something else now. How does peace come from a fist, X? How does compassion emerge from the end of a gun?"

X winced, his arm slowly lowering, resolve wilting under Lumine's questions. A blush of shame moved across his cheeks. "... I... I do think about that. I think about it all the time. I did try to work more peacefully." His heart turned inward, twisting with anguish. "It didn't make any difference. And... Sigma just took advantage of it to hurt more people."

Lumine nodded. He drifted closer, surrounded by a bubble of thin blue light, and he brushed his fingers over X's shoulder. The bubble slowly folded around X, as if embracing him. "And when you tried, you found your motives misunderstood, didn't you? You were mocked. Criticized. Blamed for 'abandoning' your 'duties'. Even your supposed friends grew contemptuous of you. What else could you have expected? The moment that we Reploids turn from a preassigned path that others have decided for us, we are dragged back by force, or coerced, or threatened with extermination if we don't comply. I promise you that if you had tried to leave the Hunters entirely, you would have been labeled a Maverick and treated just like those you have destroyed in the past. That is the way this world works, X. That is why this world needs to be changed. That is why I rebel."

Lumine drew X close, folding his arms slowly around him. The Maverick Hunter's hands twitched at his sides, but he remained still, arms limp and eyes shaking.

"You..." X felt a dark truth in Lumine's words, but it ached in his body like poison, weighing him down, filling him with bitter grief. He struggled to close the door that had opened within him. "But you started an uprising! That doesn't make things any better than... than Sigma's way!"

"Who was harmed by my followers? Who was killed? Much of the damage at the sites was done by you Hunters in resisting us. Most of your injuries were gained in the course of these battles, battles you chose to fight. I suppose you could almost call them self-inflicted wounds. That is what we are right now, a race that injures ourselves in our sleep because we have not yet awakened fully." He took a breath, then pressed his forehead against X's to whisper urgently, "Out of all Reploids, you were meant to be the one among us who feels more deeply than the rest. That was your true power. Where has your heart gone, X?"

Under the pressure, inside the warm light of Lumine, X gave a soft, broken gasp, and it felt as if something came loose inside him. His will collapsed, and his arms sank to his sides. He lowered his head, face burning with shame. "...I ... I don't know..."

"The cruelty of the old world has taken so much from you... Sigma took your innocence, and the Hunters smothered your heart... " Lumine's eye closed; he let out an airless sigh. "X, please understand. Up to now, you've allowed yourself to be used as a tool, but you're so much more than that. You, and we new-gens, have the power to evolve without limit. We have the ability to feel deeply. Perhaps we even feel more deeply than those who call themselves human... yes."

Lumine moved away, rising up into the air, glancing down at X's humbled form. "The nature of humanity- its very definition- is irrevocably changing. As the original humanity fades from the world through death and indifference, we Reploids have been given the potential to become its replacement. Not only to grow and evolve, but to feel... Do you understand, X? This is inevitable. It is fate. If humans no longer remember mercy and have abandoned their own potential... then it becomes our duty to take up that torch. To claim this world, and true humanity for ourselves." He reached up and slowly closed his hand around the image of the distant blue Earth.

"And that's what they fear, X. That is why we need you more than ever. Reploids like Sigma, who bring only the worst of the old humanity with them, are unnecessary. We can't create a new world with such simple thinking."

X brushed at his face. Something was wrong with Lumine's argument, X knew. He was sure of it, but he couldn't trace the source of his unease when the words struck so close and rang so bitterly true. He shut his eyes tightly to avoid Lumine's keen gaze, trying to find his way through the maze of his emotions. Then, it came to him, and he opened his eyes again.

"But... Lumine... if you really believe these things... why won't you come back to Earth with me?"

"X..." Lumine, for an instant, hesitated. His eye grew troubled. "You don't see... humans want to use my new-gens to run away from their responsibilities. They don't desire to work together with us to remake the world... they only intend to scurry and hide, continuing the same futile behaviors as before. That can't be allowed. We can't keep enabling them to run away from their mistakes!"

A bright flare of orange plasma roared across the room and struck Lumine in the left shoulder, shattering part of his armor and sending him rocking backward. Two Reploids moved quickly out of the shadows behind X and drew close- Zero and Axl, grimacing sharply from their wounds but eyes fixed on Lumine in fury. Zero moved to X's right, saber glittering coldly.

Axl lowered his gun and shook his head. "Since when do you get to decide what happens to everybody else, Maverick?"

X twisted, relieved to see his friends were still safe- if damaged- and his eyes met Zero's for an instant.

Lumine began to laugh, clutching at his broken shoulder. Slowly, his eyes changed, amber turning to sharp, savage red. "... You see, X? You see...?" He moved his arms up, to his sides, and began to drift away from the floor, rising higher and higher, glowering down at X the entire time. "This is the way of the Maverick Hunters- arrogance, pride, and judgment! Is that who you are, X? Are you content to be judge, jury and executioner all your life?"

"I..." X had never felt more conflicted in all his long life. Lumine's words made so much sense, echoes of haunting thoughts that had tormented X almost from the beginning, but with Axl and Zero close by, he felt the weight of their expectations wash over him - and he couldn't bear the thought of abandoning Zero. Anguished, he bit his lower lip until it turned white and stammered, "I... I don't know..."

"Why are you even listening to this creep, X? Come on, move!" Axl shouted. "You're in the way!"

"... In the way...?" X's eyes widened.

Zero shot Axl a hard glance and reached out to X. "X... please. You don't have to get into this, but I don't want you getting hurt."

Lumine, floating behind X, moved closer and began to reach for him. "They don't care about your feelings, X. They just want you to obey..."

"_Shut up_!" Axl roared. "You don't get to talk!"

And before X could do anything, Axl fired- a hot, tightly aimed blue plasma-shot that seared closely past X's shoulder and struck Lumine dead-center in the throat. The Maverick twitched in the air, limbs jerking like a punctured spider, and collapsed to the floor behind X.

"Lumine!" X spun around in a panic and crouched quickly at the broken white Reploid's side, drawing him up into his arms. "Oh, no..." He raised his head and glowered bitterly at Axl, shouting in outrage, "He wasn't attacking!"

"You going Maverick too, X? He was reaching for you!"

Zero shook his head slowly, shadows veiling his eyes.

Lumine spasmed in X's grasp, choking on blood, a dark crack spreading from his throat down into his body below his armor. He struggled to grasp hold of X's shoulder and to transmit his fading voice with the last of his strength.

"... X ... a reploid... whose heart... awakens... can become Maverick... at will... you know this..."

He spasmed once more, and then went limp, his head rolling backward, the crimson light behind his eyes stuttering and failing. The crack in his body raced down the center of his chest, all the way to his pelvis, and his armor shattered from within as something unearthly pressed out from beneath it- a long series of opaque lavender tendrils that whipped out and snapped rapidly around X's chest, head and neck. They shoved savagely into X's mouth and attempted to push beneath his armor.

Zero moved instantly, dashing across the floor and cutting X free with a keen slice of the Saber, pushing them both to the ground with his body in time for Axl to destroy the Maverick's flailing remains with his twin pistols.

"...w...what the heck was THAT?!" Axl shrieked, pale with fright. "...that wasn't a Reploid!"

Zero pulled up onto his knees above X, nodding grimly. "Don't know what the hell it was, but it's dead now." He gazed down at the startled Hunter below him. "X... are you okay? Did it hurt you?"

X was too stunned to reply, but after a moment, he weakly nodded. His core was hammering wildly- the tentacles that had gripped him had felt so terribly cold, alien and weird, leeching his energy away. He felt sick. "...I... I'm sorry..." His face began to burn. "Zero...Axl, I..."

"It's okay, X." Zero tugged X to his feet, then supported him gently, hand resting around the other Hunter's hip. "It's over."

Axl jumped around where he stood, making disgusted faces. "Gaaaah! So gross... Tentacles! Ew ew ew! Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl! Ugh!"

X gazed at Lumine's remains, his white armor cracked and shattered like an egg and his insides- whatever they had been- smouldering. Lumine's eyes were wide and unseeing, staring into nothing; hopeless, and utterly lost.

X shuddered, loathing and grief mixing in his heart.

Axl stuck his tongue out again. "Can we go now? I need to take like four hundred showers!"

Zero nodded. "We're done here." A glance sidelong at X, and a faint smile. "You want to come too, right?"

X blushed, lowering his face in shame. "...Yeah."

The three Hunters moved away to begin the long trek back toward the Elevator. Axl was ahead of them, moving fast, still shuddering and making horrified little noises. Zero kept his hand resting lightly on X's hip.

The speck of red light buried deep within their eyes was too small for X to see.


End file.
